idosubaru

does anyone know if these separator plates are universal to all EJ engines? i have a feeling the parts people won't know, they'll just punch up whatever the computer has on it, which might be plastic? the one i have is neither black or aluminum - it is white???

most likely head gasket - coolant bubbling out the overflow is very common.

good point UB - how do you know there is oil in the coolant? dark stuff in the overflow reservoir doesn't really mean much. more info!

awesome! i guess it sounds like you're already done, but when trying to get lifters to hang in place without falling i use grease and jacking that side of the car up will give some lift to that side of the engine and gravity will begin to help a bit more.

could be a couple things, head gasket seems most likely. has it ever overheated, every notice any loss of coolant or antifreeze? has it ever had any major engine work....the more specific details like this the better for diagnosing a car without ever seeing, hearing, touching, or smelling it!

i guess it's already a manual trans FWD, that would be easier than an auto trans. all this work for a vehicle that's "ugly, and rusted, and a pile"...really? make sure you're going to have it for awhile if you're putting all of that work into it. maybe it's easier to just find another 4WD subaru to play in? time=money and as cheap as subaru's are that would be the more economical route. if your insurance gives multi-car discounts, sometimes your rates decrease with a second car (mine did).

based on what you've said about buying this car in the past, you bought it used. if so, do you know whether or not they were replaced before you bought it? good mileage, consider yourself lucky!

yes on the beating a dead horse close on the 95 EJ22 - you'll want a 95 EJ22 automatic (manuals are highly unlikely to have EGR). like you're suggesting and to clarify for others later...other years are easily compatible by just swapping the exhaust header as well...which already gets unbolted anyway with an engine swap. if two extra bolts and one extra part add anything significant to an engine swap then that's one bizarre mechanic! options are good.

don't suggest we are saying something we are not - the point is not that an EJ22 can not blow a head gasket, that's absolutely absurd to suggest and doesn't make any sense. like GD said it is highly probable that engine was compromised at some point in it's 17 year history. i guarantee that some part of the cooling system is probably still original or was replaced when it busted, not just before. there are throttle body hoses, heater core hoses, rusty clamps, water pumps, thermostats, seals, gaskets, radiators, radiator caps, coolant temperature sensors, fans, relays (for the fans)...etc. it is probable that one of these items caused an overheat at some point in the history of the vehicle and eventually lead to the demise of the head gaskets. EJ25's on the other hand blow head gaskets at 30k, 80k...any mileage and all the time, very common. that is not attributable to such maintenance items. that is the differnence. an EJ22 blowing at low mileage or low age with no contributing circumstance is very rare. yes - look at the head gasket, tabs at the corners stick out between the head and engine block. i've seen three styles of head gaskets, the multi layer variety should be an indicator that it's original. nipper quotes that from some german, non-confirmed site. it's a guess, that is all. and a not very accurate in my oppinion (but i've only looked at hundreds of EJ25's to buy, so what do i know?

yeah, just a tad! you are correct, avoid that one. i have a couple extras, for $100 in gas i'll come bring it to you, har, har.

CranklyAl: yep, drop in swap, bolts right up. it looks like both of yours are non turbo vehicles/parts and EA82, if so then yes, it's a straight swap. in case the trans is from a turbo: turbo's and non-turbo's have different spline counts and final drive ratios. so it's easiest to use a turbo transmission in a turbo vehicle or a non turbo trans in a non turbo vehicle. in the off-beat chance you have the opposite going on, you'll just need front axles from whatever your transmission is (turbo or non) and you'll need to swap rear diffs that match the final drive of the transmission. i believe turbo transmissions have a 3.7 final drive and non turbo's have a 3.9 final drive.

be sure to replace both cam o-rings (not just the seals). rear passengers side and front drivers side (behind the cam cap that holds the cam seal). if you have a grease gun and want to repack the grease in that toothed pulley you can look up my thread in the USRM and have it done tomorrow for the cost of grease. notes here: http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=49443&highlight=timing+pulley+grease i've done that pulley on EJ motors before, it's an easy one. it's also the most common pulley to get noisey in my experience. it'll be $50-$100 from the dealer. the only exception to this in my oppinion is the timing belt pulleys. i go with the ebay kits on those. dealer runs a few hundred dollars to replace all the pulleys. i'd rather install new ones than leave 10+ year old high mileage pulleys in there, even if they sound "okay". ditto that.

new battery and alternator is minimal help if the wiring or connections are bad. how are the terminal connections, battery cable, alternator plug (many are brittle and in bad shape)...etc. bad charging or power issues usually show themselves but items on the dash board lighting up...all the red lights. any check engine lights recently - when you get those you need to get the code and let us know what it is, that is usually a great starting point. what is the status of tune up items - plugs, wires, cap, rotor, air filter, etc? first guess "if" it is sensor or electrical in nature is the coolant temperature sensor, and that's usually caused by and obvious by the amount of corrosion and poor condition of the wiring harness. you "should" get a check engine light if this is causing your problem though.

i'm trying to keep things straight for people trying to figure this stuff out and based on your assertions there is no difference between EJ22 and EJ25 headgasket failure rates after 120,000 miles - that is completely false and not good for people looking for information. let's not make this worse by getting hung up on semantics. we all realize there is some issue at hand with EJ25's, regardless of how you define it or what you call it. what? i never said "anything that fails after 100k is a bad design" ???? more semantics, use whatever word you like that describes the EJ25 "issue" to your satisfaction...it's not a criteria, i never used that word. it's statistics, logic and experience. you really honestly believe that whatever "issue" they have, has NO EFFECT on the failure rates after 120k. for someone with engineering experience that's hard for me to imagine you really believe that - that the failure rate magically drops to zero...is that an asymptote, a limit? all semantics aside, experience tells us this, it is quantifiable: more EJ25's fail after 120,000 miles than EJ22's. that alone is enough, but then there are tens of thousands of EJ22's that are much older than EJ25's. the EJ22/EJ18 debuted 6 years before the EJ25. based on your "age" assesment, there should be far more 120k+ EJ22's with head gasket issues than EJ25's. that logic is comical, it is not at all even close to what we see in the real world (coming from someone who looks for an buys EJ's with bad head gaskets). actually, it's quite the opposite.

ah okay. i have an EJ18 (i think 93 or 94) and a 97 EJ22 i'm currently playing with. sounds like the EJ18 might have the alloy and the 97 EJ22 might have the POS you're talking about. thanks!

the EJ25 is the only engine that will produce interesting results. any other subaru engine usually holds the head gaskets for the life of the engine if they are properly taken care of. nip! i'm not sure that's relevant to this thread, that's been hashed out over and over. that is equivalent to saying this: "it is impossible for a bad design to affect failure rates beyond 120,000 miles". that's absurd and you know it!

1997 Legacy GT Sedan lost at 85,000 1996 Legacy GT Sedan about 130k 1996 Legacy LSi Sedan about 110k

so older EJ18 and EJ22's will be plastic?

okay, that part number is the new updated metal plate part number? you're right, the EJ18 and EJ22 indeed have the rear separator plates, i've seen them. but wasn't sure if they are plastic/metal. will probably be bolting an engine to a trans this week and want to make sure it's the metal variety on there, wasn't sure if it was obvious or not.

is it only the EJ25 that has the plastic rear separator plate or do the EJ18 and EJ22 have them as well? i've got some EJ22's and EJ18's and wondering if they could use the metal style too?

you checked your fusible links? your battery, alternator, cables are all good, clean and tight?

A pillar molding, windshield molding? something like that.

this is all over the site, start searching and reading up. what are you looking to do - keep the EJ25 or swap to an EJ22? rebuild or used? if rebuilt - just call CCR and they'll take care of you. if you're looking for used, start searching the forum all of this information is readily available.

lots of people say that but i've yet to ever hear proof that it's happened and it goes against everything we actually see and hear from others doing swaps (like myself). i don't know about other states but in MD, they have state run facilities to do it, they pay guys 9 bucks an hour to look at your check engine light (to see if it's on or off) then check emissions. if the light isn't on and the emissions are below thresholds you pass. if not, you come back and try again. it's not that complicated and they certainly don't thoroughly inspect every make/model/year/engine combo/trans combo/ECU ever made. and i know many other states this holds true as well. now...im' not saying it's impossible, and the only reason im going on this diatribe is that i don't think it's accurate to suggest to new or non-car/non-mechanically oriented people some speculation that we don't see any evidence of. people are swapping engines all the time, it's not that big of a deal. california you say....well they need their own forum, i don't know anything about those freaks!!

heat sensitive problems like this are typically ignition related - like the distributor in this case. coils can be freaky with temps too.